Greeting,
I provide IT support for Small Businesses and nonprofits. Mostly 3-5 machines mostly running XP. Not much money here, but enjoy the work.
I have set up several “servers” primarily as a place to store shared data and backups (ie each WS backs up data and files nightly, I keep Quickbooks files on it that the WS will access, create HD images and store them on it etc.) all very simple. The server will have 2 drives…everybody backs up to one and then that drive is periodically imaged to the second…so I end up with 2-3 backups of everything….
For a “server” I just install a desktop running Windows XP Pro.
My questions are, using the “server” as described above,
-how fast/powerful does the server have to be? -how will its performance (CPU/Ram) effect the users?
The point would be should spend bigger bucks putting in a dual or quad core machine if this is all I am using it for?
Thanks, your experienced opinions are appreciated..
Brian